Assault charges all on their own are enough to leave you facing felony-level charges, years behind bars and thousands in criminal fines. You’ll also carry around a criminal record of violent crime.

All of these consequences pale, however, in comparison to when an assault is also deemed a hate crime. In other words, if prosecutors can prove that a defendant assaulted the victim based on identity, nationality, religion, race or sexual orientation, they will no doubt have much more serious [...]